OTD in History: Saratoga, OPEC, and [???]
Oh my...
Whilst digging up some stuff for today’s almanac entry, I came across three and couldn’t settle on one. So here! I like you guys. You get more.
Actually, you know what? My paid subscribers will get even more more. So part of this will be behind…
…The Wall.
Okay, Thing The First:
Poppy Tommywobbles Were Exceedingly Kicked
In 1777, American General Horatio “Suck It” Gates formally accepted the surrender of British General John “Last Name Definitely Got Him Bullied At Hogwarts” Burgoyne. The Battle of Saratoga was so awesome that America dished it out in two parts (Sept 19 and October 7), thoroughly kicking Burgoyne’s poppy tommywobble so hard that he needed ten days for it to stop smarting.
Once he could stand without crying, he signed the paperwork, and Gates subjected him to the most painful humiliation imaginable: spelling his own name.
According to strategery, this was one of those “critical turning points” that really changed the momentum of the war going into 1778. Good on Gates and his men.
Thing the Second:
This Again?!
I’ve touched on this recently, so it’s developing at pace: OPEC declared its oil embargo in 1973, following the fallout of the Yom Kippur War, ratcheting up the price of oil and thus gas. America quickly realized that a third of its oil supply came from inimical nations in the Middle East, so this event prompted the establishment of the Strategic Oil Reserve 2 years later.
And 43 years after that, Joe Biden would drain that $#!t to hide the fact that $5 gas was his freaking fault, but we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it. Frigging OPEC. Just drill more in the Gulf of America.
